Government will have to sway Jacqui Lambie in welfare drug test plan

The Morrison government will have to persuade key crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie of the merits of its plan to revive drug testing for welfare recipients, after she again tied her support to random screening of Canberra's elite.

The independent senator told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age any measure imposed on Newstart and Youth Allowance recipients should be broadened to MPs, public servants and parliamentary press gallery journalists.

Jacqui Lambie says she will support drug testing the unemployed if government MPs subject themselves to the same test. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The policy, first developed under the Turnbull government, was rejected twice by the previous Senate but will be reintroduced when Parliament resumes after a six-week winter break.

"Like I said last time, I won't be supporting it until they are prepared to do that themselves," Senator Lambie said.

Linda Burney, in a press conference on Friday, said drug addiction was "a health issue" that should not be dealt with through the welfare system.Credit:AAP

"Randomised drug testing could see a 55-year-old being expected to urinate into a cup somewhere to prove that they are not a drug addict," Ms Burney said.

Greens senator Rachel Siewert said the government was "morally bankrupt" and was taking "an ideological approach" despite expert advice against the move.

Without Labor and Greens support for the measures, the government will need four of the six crossbench senators to pass the bill.

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South Australian independent senator Cory Bernardi, who along with One Nation's two senators has previously supported the measures, said on Friday his position had not changed, though he added that drug testing federal politicians was "probably a pretty good idea".

The government will need the support of either Senator Lambie or one of two Centre Alliance senators to pass the bill. On Friday, Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie said there was no evidence the policy would assist people with their addictions.

"It's a populist idea," she said. "We have so few days in the Parliament [and] we have so much good to do. I don't think this needs to be in the mix."

Senator Lambie said she had not been approached by the government over the bill and had not seen the updated legislation.

Social Services Minister Anne Ruston urged the crossbench to look at the plan as a way "to help people who have a problem with drugs".

Prime Minister Scott Morrison took to social media to say he had "no problem with drug tests for politicians" while Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told Sky News he was "completely relaxed" about submitting to a test, if that was what it would take to win support.

Minister for Families and Social Services Anne Ruston said the plan shouldn't be viewed as a "punitive measure".Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Chairman of the Australian Medical Association's ethics committee, Chris Moy, said the policy conflicted with the government's own National Drug and Alcohol Strategy for 2016 to 2025, which "basically says we're not in the game of stigmatising and criminalising drug and alcohol addiction".

"What we have here is exactly that," Dr Moy said. "These people need help. They have a condition. We need to treat that."

Australian Council of Social Service director of policy Jacqueline Phillips accused the government of "trying to deflect from the overwhelming, broad support for an increase to the appallingly low rates of Newstart and Youth Allowance after 25 years without a real increase".

Associate professor Nadine Ezard, the clinical director of St Vincent's Sydney's alcohol and drug unit, said threatening people with a substance abuse disorder that "if they test positive they'll be placed on income management" would not change their behaviour and would increase "stigma and anxiety".

Senator Ruston said the government was not threatening to cut off drug users' benefits, as anyone caught by the scheme would receive the same amount of welfare - but part of it would be quarantined "so that these people can address their addiction".

"What we're saying is that instead of giving them access to all of their money in cash - cash which only in many instances is going straight to drug dealers - we're saying, let's quarantine some of it."